The effects of supply chain integration on operational performance in Ethiopia commodity Exchange (ECX) Jimma Branch

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine the current level of supply chain integration and to analyze its effect of operational performance. The study is considered as a case study. This research conceptualizes and develops five dimensions of supply chain integration (supplier integration, customer integration and internal integration, warehouse integration and ICT integration) and examines the relationships among supply chain integration dimensions (SCI) and operational performance (OP).Many studies have found that integration across the supply chain has a positive impact on organizational performance practices on supply chain performance there is a lack of studies in Ethiopia that link supply chain integration practices and operational performance. Such problems happened thanks to poor supply chain management normally and provide chain integration problems particularly. The data collection instrument used was a questionnaire which was administrated to a total sample of employees using stratified sampling techniques. Statistical techniques such as descriptive statistics, correlation, and multiple regressions were employed to analyze the data. Measured from the five dimensions of SCI, it can be concluded that the current level of SCI of the ECX in terms of internal integration need a basic emphasis and ICT network and the ordering system with major suppliers and exporters is very poor. The organization has a relatively better human resource in integration of ECX is moderate, but its external integration (supplier and customer integrations) is weak. The result of the analysis also proved that there is strong and significant relationship between supply chain integration and operational performance. Besides, SCI have a strong and positive effect on operational performance. Therefore, for improving operational performance, the current study recommends improving the five components of Supply chain (SC) together as they are strongly interrelated.